After closing my Emigrant Direct account last week, I figured I’d add to my paperwork and open up a new bank account! This time I turned to a bank I’ve talked about in the past but never dealt with personally – EverBank. They have all the characteristics I look for in an online bank – FDIC insured, competitive interest rate, and informative website. They’ve been been in business for many years, as a mortgage lender, before they started taking deposits in 1998 (when they were FDIC insured). Since then, they’ve won a ton of awards such as Money Magazine “Best of the Breed” in 2007 and Kiplinger’s “Best Checking Account” in 2006. Most importantly, they don’t appear to be too affected by the credit crisis… all good things, so I opened an account today.

Yield Pledge Money Market Account interest rates: The account gives you 3.51% for the first three months, then 2.73% for the balance of the year up to $50,000 (balance above that get 2.43%). The promotional rate is on par with the current interest rate leader, 3.20% Dollar Savings Direct, and crushes it in terms of safety (DSD has only 1 star from Bankrate)

WorldCurrency CDs: By opening an account with EverBank, I get quick access to their international CDs. They offer certificates of deposit in international currencies, such as the British pound, the Euro, the Indian rupee, and the Swiss franc. I’m not planning on investing in international CDs, nor do I recommend them, but it’s good to have the option (and an opportunity to learn more about them).

Money Market Accounts

The one big difference between the EverBank account and some of the other online banks is that it’s a money market account, rather than a savings account. With EverBank’s Yield Pledge MMA, you can have checkwriting privileges, three checks a month, which adds some flexibility. Everbank is still among the best when it comes to the best money market account rates but her certificate of deposit rates are a little weak.

WorldCurrency CDs

EverBank currently offers eighteen different types of international currency CDs: Australian dollar, Brazilian real, British pound, Danish krone, Euro, Hong Kong dollar, Icelandic krona, Indian rupee, Japanese yet, Mexican peso, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, Singapore dollar, South African rand, Swedish krona, and the Swiss franc. Their terms range from 3-months to 12-months, though only nine currencies are available for 12 months and two of them have returns of 0.00%). Again, I’m not planning on investing in international CDs (the currency risk is far too great) nor do I advocate them, but it’s nice to have the option.

Account Opening Process

The account opening process was pretty quick, took about five minutes to get through the screen, but it ends with you printing out an application and signature card that you have to mail in. A signature card isn’t unusual, but usually banks offer a fax option. It will have to be a few days before the account is officially opened and funded.

Like this article? Get all the latest articles sent to your email for free every day. Enter your email address and click "Subscribe." Your email will only be used for this daily subscription and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Explain to me why everything is dropping? i mean i understand what is going on with the economy but what can we do to make it better? I’ve been researching in investing in private banks. Would that be a good idea? what can I do to make money during this economic crisis?

Everything is dropping because interest rates are at all time lows, so banks don’t feel compelled to pay out high rates. The only thing I can recommend, if you want safe investments, is to go with CDs.

Interesting that you had to print out the application and signature card and mail them in. This was the old way, but according to Jonathon at MyMoneyBlog, the application process was completely online with no paperwork as of November 2008. Wonder why they went back to the old way.

The international currency CDs sound really interesting, I’ve never seen that offered in a retail setting. Depending on the rates and minimum deposit amounts, could be fun and educational to try them…but I need to check it out first. Thanks for the review Jim!

I’m about to move money out of CountryWide (now down to a pathetic 1.65 APY…thanks to BOA acquiring them) and was going to go with Dollar Savings Direct.

Before I make this decision, I’m wondering if you could elaborate a little more on “safety” concerns/ratings.

Since all are FDIC insured, what are the primary concerns? Are they that the bank will go belly up and then we’ll have to go through the (not very enjoyable) process/paperwork to get our deposits back?

Something else to think about is a local credit union. I just started up a “max” checking account at lake michigan credit union. LMCU.org. It is 5% yield if you have direct deposit, login 4 times a month online, and use the debit card associated with the account 10 times a month. The cool thing is this. As most credit unions, they only let you in for certain reasons. I signed up even though I didn’t live, work, go to school, or worship in those counties. They called me and informed me that I did not qualify for an account based on my living conditions but I could qualify by making a charitable donation this specific charity of there choice. It was $5 minimum. So now I have a checking account, with checks, a debit card, and 5% APY up to $15,000. Local research can pay off big time!!

I as looking over the info at EverBank. If your balance falls below $1500 there’s a $4.95 monthly fee. So this means you’ll have to either keep $1500 in that account if you transfer funds away, or close your account. Sounds lame.

“Minimum opening deposit of $1,500 is required. In any month that your average monthly balance falls below $1,500, a $4.95 monthly fee applies”

On a side note, if you have any experiences with business banking I’d love to read about it.

Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page.Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser.